Chats On The Starter Menu....

....and a raptor to finish with on the sweet menu!

What a lovely sunny if cold day on Friday to find 7 Stonechat, with two found on Conder Pool, two foraging along the marsh by Cockersand Caravan Park, one on roadside fence posts Moss Lane, and two along the bulrushes behind Lighthouse Cottage. AC found the mate of my loner on Moss Lane, so proof of four pairs wintering in the Lune Estuary area.

Stonechat Moss Lane 24 November

Also noted on Conder Pool, 20 Tufted Duck, 5 Goosander, and 9 Little Grebe.

Little Grebe Conder Pool. Ian Mitchell.

Ian Mitchell caught on camera conclusive proof the Little Grebe catch Sticklebacks like there's no tomorrow, and play with them until they can swallow head first so the spines don't snag on the throat.

On the Lune at Glasson, up to 650 Golden Plover and 620 Black-tailed Godwit which was up to half the number seen on my last visit here last Tuesday. A Raven was overhead at close range.

As I approached Cockersand along Moss Lane, a Buzzard was close by in a tree, but took offence to me and flew off as I pulled up to grab a pik. My records read, the circuit was a huge success, if only because I found 5 Stonechat here. Otherwise, just 3 Wren, 2 Meadow Pipit, and a lone Greenfinch got into my little black book.

But hey, the visit ended with a bang....As I watched a Stonechat pair foraging the marsh edge, a Hen Harrier ringtail burst onto the scene, it quartered low over the marsh 50 metres out for several minutes before I eventually lost it to view heading to Cockerham Marsh....Heck!

Thanks to Simon Hawtin for his stunning Hen Harrier header image.

Anniversary.

Wheatear Cockersand 25 November 2022. Pete Woodruff.

Twelve months yesterday since I found this little beauty on detritus at Cockersand.